Read about abortion reality, if you dare

Discussions of abortion are sometimes high up the ladder of abstraction, with terms like “pro-choice” and “a woman’s right to choose” thrown around.

Here’s part of yesterday’s testimony before a congressional committee of Dr. Anthony Levatino, a New Mexico pro-life physician who once was an abortionist with 1,200 killings to his discredit. Then his daughter died in an auto accident, and he changed his views and stopped doing abortions. Now he tells the truth with specific detail:

“Imagine if you can that you are a pro-choice obstetrician-gynecologist like I once was. Your patient today is 24-weeks pregnant. At 24 weeks from last menstrual period, her uterus is two finger-breadths above the umbilicus.

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“If you could see her baby, which is quite easy on an ultrasound, she would be as long as your hand plus a half from the top of her head to the bottom of her rump not counting the legs. Your patient has been feeling her baby kick for the last two months or more but now she is asleep on an operating room table and you are there to help her with her problem pregnancy.

“The first task is remove the laminaria that had earlier been placed in the cervix to dilate it sufficiently to allow the procedure you are about to perform. With that accomplished, direct your attention to the surgical instruments arranged on a small table to your right. The first instrument you reach for is a 14-French suction catheter. It is clear plastic and about 9 inches long. It has a bore through the center approximately three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Picture yourself introducing this catheter through the cervix and instructing the circulating nurse to turn on the suction machine, which is connected through clear plastic tubing to the catheter. What you will see is a pale yellow fluid that looks a lot like urine coming through the catheter into a glass bottle on the suction machine. This is the amniotic fluid that surrounded the baby to protect her.

“With suction complete, look for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about 13 inches long and made of stainless steel. At the end are located jaws about 2½ inches long and about three-quarters of an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go. A second trimester D&E [dilation and evacuation] abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can.

“At 24-weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft, so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard—really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart, and lungs.

“The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face will come out and stare back at you.

“Congratulations! You have just successfully performed a second-trimester, suction D&E abortion. You just affirmed her right to choose.”